It felt strange, walking through the streets with these four. I felt like we should be clinging to shadows, stalking forward in columns when no eyes were watching, but instead...we just walked right down the sidewalk like high school had just gotten out.

We'd been unloaded at the edge of the OA--operational area, I'd learned, or 'place where shit was about to go down'--and despite the unusual quiet, it just felt like we were on a pleasant walk. Like Karu and I had been enjoying just this morning.

Cars rumbled in the distance, birds called out, a train whistle could be heard pealing as it passed a crossing somewhere. Every once in awhile, I'd see soldiered uniforms, quietly funnelling people out of buildings and down backways, a silent evacuation, people always going the opposite direction we were. But even they moved quietly and with relative calm, not disrupting the peace of the clear, unseasonably warm day.

And that was the whole point, I supposed. Not a whole lot of point on trying to chase someone down if you're making a huge racket letting them know we were about to come up on them.

We caught up with the trackers, two XPCA soldiers in non-standard uniforms, outfitted with all sorts of tools, and crazy headgear which looked like it had a thousand different digital eyes of every shape and size. One was on all fours on the ground like a dog, taking slow long deliberate steps and sweeping his head back and forth...more like a crab than a dog, I realized. The other saluted and approached as we drew near.

"You are...the new team?" he asked, with a sharp salute, and the same digital distortion in his voice, despite not being in an exosuit. The numerous devices across his face and hanging off his head in all directions minutely adjusted itself as he took in each of us, lenses realigning, apertures dilating, cameras pivoting. Even when he held still, it was like his eyes were darting all over. Slightly unsettling, but also incredibly cool.

"That's us," said Jack. "Status report."

"The target definitely went this way, looks like you're in luck. Seems she went into Zone Bravo all on her own. We did a pass, but couldn't pick up anyone inside, too much concrete and metal to get a read from the outside. She hasn't come out yet, so unless there's an underground route or she can fly, she’s still in there."

"She?" I said.

"Yes, we confirmed it was the female." He reached into one of the many pouches on his front and withdrew a small sample bag with a single blue strand of hair in it.

"Why would she go in there?" Tower asked. "She thinks she can hide from us?"

"The recon team doesn't speculate, sir," he replied simply.

"What's your friend doing?" I asked, as the second recon slowly plodded forward again, sweeping his head from side to side, inches from the ground.

"He...that is, we found some unusual climatic readings. We were just checking it out while we waited."

"It is pretty unnaturally warm today," Jack said, smiling at the sky.

"Yes sir. But no sir, the readings were cold air currents, not warm. It's probably nothing."

"Very well. Thank you for your hard work," said Jack.

"Thank you, sir. Vigilo Ignoto." He gave us one more sharp salute and then collected his friend and the two walked off with an awkward gait.

"They're a little freaky," Tower said.

"The suits, they had stilts and distended gloves," I said. "Must be to make it easier to run on all fours."

"Running all fours is a little freaky."

"Focus, assholes," said Mage, finishing her bottle of water and crushing it on her forehead. She threw the empty at Tower. "Don't get me killed."

"That's...not very polite, Mage," Tem chastised, speaking for probably the first time today.

"If polite kept me alive, I'd be it." Mage shoved Tower in the back, towards the empty construction of Zone Bravo.

Bravo was reasonably complete looking from the outside, looked like an under-construction building, surrounded by a dirt yard, surrounded by fences. But inside, it was still an obviously unfinished skeleton. No walls, just concrete pillars, and stairs in a couple of places. Everything was dark because there were temporary walls, tarps, and scaffolding instead of windows, and obviously no lights. We could see through the gloom, but it was still unsettling. Nothing on the first floor but random piles of construction materials, so we hit the stairs and moved up. Mage grabbed a mallet and chisel from a table as we passed them.

"Klepto, much?" Tower asked.

"S-s-she just wants to have s-something to defend...to defend herself."

"Both of you are stupid."

The second floor looked much the same, but the third was much more open, with no tarps or wooden walls put up, letting us see the sky pouring in. There, in the far corner of the room was a chair, facing towards the city, and sitting in the chair, identifiable by the back of her blue head, was our girl.

We advanced slowly, carefully. Except Mage, who noisily and worryingly was attacking the stairs with her new toys. Blue hair didn't turn around at the noise, so we continued our approach.

"Hands in the air, miss," Jack said, suddenly on her, knife in hand, wrapped around her throat. I couldn't see because he was in the way, but she didn't move or explode or anything.

We all stood shock still for several moments. "You guys should see this," Jack said. We started to close the other half of the distance when Mage stepped in front of us, unspooling a thick wire cable.

"Mage, what are you doing?" I asked.

"Helping. Duh."

"By running wire in front of us?"

"Step over it."

She was completely impossible, but I stepped over it anyway because I had to see what Jack was seeing. I drew close and finally rounded the front of the chair, unsure of what to expect.

She was...dead? She was slumped forward, barely propped up in the chair. I put my hand in front of her face and felt her breath, cold on my hand. Just sleeping then?

Mage threw the chisel down the stairs with an enormous clatter and we all watched for a second as it went. Once it stopped, she swore, in Spanish, I think, and followed it down.

"She always do this?" I asked.

"She always does whatever she wants. I don't ask anymore," Tower replied.

"Why did we bring her?"

People shrugged.

Tem walked to the front of blue hair and gasped, reaching out to wake her up. Jack gently stopped her, but her face showed all kinds of concern for the poor girl. How had she ever planned on fighting this girl, if it had come to that?

"So the obvious question is, is this a trap," I asked, crossing my arms and thinking.

"I was more thinking, if this is a trap, think we can grab her and scoot without tripping it?" replied Tower. "I'm more of a delivery guy than a detective."

"There's no physical trap here. No hidden wires or explosives or anything. Just her." Jack said, scanning the area with a smile. I trusted his sight beyond sight more than my own eyes.

"Excuse me," said Mage as she walked into the middle of our group with the mallet and tread on Tower, deftly climbing up his leg onto his shoulders. He looked as confused as the rest of us as he held her aloft. She took steady aim at the base of a support anchoring a pipe the ceiling and gave it a sharp whack, shearing the support and making the end of the pipe dangle above us. It had a sprinkler on the end of it, one of those fire suppression systems.

When she whacked the anchor, blue hair stirred and slowly blinked at us.

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"Tower, grab that," she said, as she climbed back down. He seemed more concerned with the girl, but did as he was told.

"Bend it down slowly."

Blue hair watched quietly and patiently as they worked, as confused as the rest of us.

"Thought we were avoiding unnecessary damage?" I asked.

"Shut up. Bend it, Tower."

He already was, and once it was almost perpendicular, and completely useless, she told him to stop, and then sat on the floor next to us.

"Are you done?" I asked.

"You can thank me later."

I sighed. "Hi. What's your name?"

"My name?" blue hair said in a feathery voice. "Um, Steffie. Where am I?"

"In a building in D.C., near East Falls."

"How did I get here?"

"We don't know, we found you here. Tem, can you call Cosette with an update?"

"S-s-s-sure." I rolled my eyes and realized she was probably the worst radio man, but whatever.

"You hurt or anything? Can you walk?"

"Yes, I think so. Who are you? Why are you...breaking that pipe."

"We're uh," I looked at the others. We didn't have a cover story or anything. I wasn't sure what to say. "We're XPCA. I have no idea why they broke the pipe."

"X...XPCA?" she shouted and stood up, folding chair falling behind her with a bang. "Stay away! STAY AWAY!" she shrieked.

"Smooth, Chariot," Tower growled at me out of the side of my mouth.

"Look, we don't want to hurt you lady," I said. She was already backing away. "Stop or we're going to have to stop you, please."

"No! Look, I haven't done anything! It was an accident, okay? I've been a good person, I've been a good Exhuman. I haven't hurt anyone in thirteen years, I promise!"

"We just need to take you in."

Her eyes widened. "No! I don't want to die!"

"Nobody's going to kill you," I said, trying to calm her, but I'd already done way too much damage. The reputation of the XPCA and their attitudes towards prisoners preceded us. She was panicking now, and running towards the stairs. I sighed. "Tem, please close the stairs. Jack, can you keep her from running around please?"

"Like...with a knife?"

"No. We're taking her in alive, and the XPCA isn't going to execute her. Thirteen years she said she's been hiding, God damn."

She screamed as the stairs closed themselves before her eyes, and then again as she backed right into Jack, who just smiled at her, and then bolted from him and ran right into him again, before she dropped to the floor and crawled backwards away from him.

"We're Exhumans too, see?" I said. "New XPCA policy. Guess you didn't hear."

"I did hear! They're sending you to kill your own kind now! I won't let you take me in! I won't! I'll...I'll fight you if I have to!"

She would have been a lot more threatening if she were not continuing to crawl backwards from Jack, who was rummaging around in a bag he had on his back.

"Here we go," he said, and lobbed a grenade at her feet. She stared at it with slowly-dawning terror as he disappeared. It emitted a tone and then exploded, way bigger than I thought possible. Even on the other end of the building, my ears rung and I had to blink the lights out of my eyes over a few seconds.

Steffie was screaming inarticulately and rolling on the ground, eyes closed, grasping at her ears. In a circle around and under Steffie, the concrete looked like it had shattered, centered on her instead of on the grenade.

So the teaser had worked. She was clearly blind and deaf as hell, but it going off had made her explode with enough force to crack the floor under her. I felt bad standing and analyzing the situation so coldly while she thrashed and screamed, but I sure as hell wasn't getting close to her until I knew how she worked. I was a lot more brittle than concrete.

In both instances, she'd been attacked and reacted explosively. Was her power just a shield like mine, then? Uncontrollable explosive force when it determined she was under attack? But this time, while the blast was sizable, it wasn't destroy a whole store and vaporize someone standing fifteen feet away, as it had been on the holo big.

The difference was...what? Emotional? Physical? Was she trying to hold back this time but not then? There wasn't any reason for her to do so...last time she had her tormentors right on top of her and an innocent in the blast range, if anything else, she should have been trying to hold back then. Maybe the nature of the hit, then? A loud boom was, relatively speaking, nothing compared to a solid kick to the chest.

Jack was back and from his pack he had a pair of restraints, and advanced on her.

"Jack," I said. "Don't do anything which could be considered an attack. In fact, let Tower do it. Tower, be gentle and keep your force suppression up. I think if she feels like she's under attack, she explodes."

The two agreed and passed off the restraints to Tower, who gently grappled with the flailing girl, getting the restraints on her, binding her arms and legs. She seemed to have some idea what was going on, and was crying through her inarticulate yelling. It sounded like she was trying to say things, but, unaccustomed to being deaf, it was coming out as pleading stretches of vowels.

This job was making me feel like shit more and more. How was any of this supposed to paint us as heroes? I committed myself to not allowing her to be put to death, at least. She could live with Saga if it came to that. Hell, she could live with me if it came to that. This woman didn't deserve death just for existing.

"Bring her here. Now. Come, all of you."

Mage was still sitting in the corner under the bent water pipe, where Tem was fretting listlessly. Jack and Tower obeyed at once.

"Why?" I asked.

"Move," she barked, but there was something in her voice, a hint of desperation I couldn't ignore. I wanted to drag my feet, get some answers out of her, but was really unnerved by the unusual outpouring of emotion. Outpouring relative to her norm, anyway.

I joined the little family in a circle, Steffie on the ground in the middle of all of us. "Happy?" I asked, exasperated.

"Never," she said. And then, without warning, water flooded the room. The fire-suppression sprinklers in the ceiling began throwing water everywhere. I had no idea they put out so much damn water, in mere moments, there were literal walls of water pouring off the sides of the building from the floors above, like we were in a hurricane.

Water covered every inch of everything on the floor, as imperfections in the concrete turned the current into little eddies, rivers, and lakes, inches deep. Everything...except us.

Apparently we were on the highest corner of the floor, and water went around us like an island. The pipe above our heads was completely broken, only letting out a slow drip instead of flinging buckets of the stuff in every direction. We all, sort of one by one, began staring at Mage.

"I said you can thank me later," she said.

"Thanks for keeping us dry, I guess?" I said.

"It's not later yet. Just...be ready."

She sounded scared, and her fear, of all of ours, was infectious. We huddled back-to-back on our small dry island, Steffie now still and quiet, apparently recovered enough to read the mood.

"I remember how I got here," she whispered. "A man. He said I could hide here from you. And then...I don't remember anything."

So it was a trap, but not hers. But who, and why, and what was with all this water? Was he just using the chaos of it to get a drop on us, or did he have a complimentary power?

Half a moment later, I wish I didn't have the answer. In an instant, all the water in the room had frozen, turned to glassy sheets of ice exactly where it sat, ripples from falling droplets, the spray from the sprinklers, even the sheets of water over the edge of the building, all solid ice in an instant.

And in the instant after, cold like I'd never felt in my life, from the ice itself. It felt like the ice was so cold, it was sucking heat out of the air. I felt the cold burn my throat, and had to shut my eyes as they threatened to freeze solid. I could feel frozen lumps in my tear ducts, which hurt like a motherfucker. My skin screamed like it was on fire. My clothes felt like they did nothing, like the cold was reaching right into me.

Just when I couldn't stand it for another second, it was gone. I dragged in a ragged gasp that burned my throat and lungs. Still cold, but nothing like the freezing blast of a moment ago.

"We--" I coughed. "--we okay? Report." I asked.

Everyone sounded off. We were all still here, even Steffie. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the XPCA comms.

"Cosette? We have the girl, but something isn't right."

"This is Raven Central, we solid copy. Do you need extraction?"

"I think there's another Exhuman at play. Someone with cold powers. Powerful."

I heard a noise like someone crunching through heavy snow and looked around. The wall to our left, about ten feet away was shimmering. Wriggling. The ice itself was shifting, layering on itself. Becoming thicker.

Like it was amassing for an attack.

I grabbed the two people closest to me, Mage and Tem, and dropped to the floor. Tem screamed, and then, in the same moment with a splintering crack which echoed through the ice cave, a huge multi-barbed icicle exploded from the wall of ice, slicing through the air above our prone heads, catching Jack and Tower.

Tower flew backwards, powers at the ready to transform the explosive piercing force into a shove, but Jack wasn't so lucky. He'd started to move, started to disappear after I'd hit the deck, but was too slow. He wasn't here anymore, but there was blood on the icy spear where he'd been standing, and on the floor.

"Shit, Jack!?" I shouted.

"Jack?" Cosette's voice came through the comms I'd dropped. "What about Jack? Say again, Papa-Foxtrot two."

"Jack's hurt!" I shouted at the comms. "Ice Exhuman, we can't see him yet." I turned to the rest laying with me. "We need to get out of here!"

"Extraction teams inbound. Hang tight, guys."

"We can't wait for that. We need to get out of all this ice. He can attack us from anywhere." I heard the sounds of snow crunching all around us now, as ice began to shift all around our little island.

"Move!" screamed Mage, and we all leapt forward, me dragging the bound Steffie behind me, towards the stairs. I made it exactly two steps before sliding uncontrollably on the ice, falling on my ass painfully, and continuing to slide.

Ahead of us, the ice quivered menacingly, preparing to close on us like a set of teeth. I clawed at the ground, unable to find a hold. I slashed at the ice before us, making it crack and sizzle with the heat of my blades, but it reformed as quickly as I melted it away, and as it did, I felt the biting cold again. When the ice formed was when it sucked the heat from the air.

I'm sure there were some interesting physics behind it, but I was busy sliding towards my death. I saw blades of ice form from the ceiling, aimed and ready to cut us in half like a guillotine. If only the ground weren't so smooth and flat, if I had anything, anything to grab. But instead we were just sailing right into the damn jaws of death, screaming and clawing the whole way.